Venom: Genesis
by Travis P. Collins
Summary: The re-imagined story of how Eddie Brock and his alter-ego Venom became the Lethal Protector of San Francisco.
1. Chapter I

Chapter I

She tried to scream, but his hand was covering her mouth as he shoved her back against the cold brick wall. Her thoughts whirled madly out of control, mingling with the crude laughter of her attacker and his two companions in a cacophony of sounds and emotions that only served to add to her growing hysteria. Of course, her terror was warranted as the three men loomed over her, their eyes lustfully foreshadowing their perverted intentions.

"It's all good, babe," the leader of the trio sarcastically cooed, his hand still tightly wrapped around her mouth as he nudged closer to her. "If you do everything we tell you, you might even enjoy it. 'Course, you could always struggle and try to scream, but that'd just get me turned on."

The woman tried to escape, shifting immediately to her and trying to muscle through with her shoulder, only to find one of the other two men blocking her way. He grabbed her roughly by her blouse and threw her to the ground, ripping the garment open. The woman instinctively covered her breasts and tried to escape again, but they were on top of her again, with their leader straddling her body whiles his accomplices held her arms down.

"Now what'd I tell you?" he said laughing as he hands began to explore her chest. "You went and got me all excited. Guess I'm gonna have to do something 'bout that, huh?"

The woman screamed and writhed as her assailant undid his pants. The alleyway began to spin about wildly amid their insidious laughter and her attackers prying hands. Yet in the midst of the terrifying ordeal, the woman became keenly aware that there was another person in the shadows of the alleyway.

"Leave her be."

The voice was humanlike, almost certainly male, but there was something else about it that seemed to strip away any humanity or feeling. It had an almost inward-echo, a reverberation of two voices intertwined and yet somehow separate. However the voice's owner achieved the effect or wherever he was within the passage, he had succeeded in startling the woman's attackers. The leader immediately brought himself to a standing position and began to look wildly about the alley for signs of the voice.

"Alright jackass," he said angrily as he zipped his pants back, "Show yourself 'fore my boys and I come and kick the sh-"

"You will do no such thing," the voice snapped. "You will let the girl leave and you will leave. If you do not, then you will die."

The three men looked at each other for a moment before their leader suddenly barked back into the darkness, "Screw you, asswipe!" He immediately pulled a handgun from his belt and fired into the darkened end of the alley, the bullet echoing and clanging on the cold wet brick surface of the passage walls.

The woman, who for her part had been in a state of near-unconsciousness while under the weight of her attacker, suddenly found herself with the ability to move, though this was severely hampered by the presence of her three assailants. Turning over quickly to face the darkened end of the alley, she peered into the blackness in an effort to find her mysterious protector. There was an uneasy silence that permeated the murky backstreet alley- a silence that loomed as heavy as the company of the three men who had tried to force their will upon her only moments ago.

Then, as if the shadows themselves were alive, something within the darkness began to move. It was subtle to be sure, but it was movement. One of the three men, a scruffy boy with a badly shaven mohawk looked, turned back toward his leader warily. Suddenly there was another movement along the wall nearest to the three men, this time much faster. And as quickly as the movement had happened, all settled again into the tense silence.

"Yo Tony," the mohawked man said, his voice wavering, "let's get out of here. I ain't gonna mess with some nutso pullin' that ninja crap. Let's just go."

"Quiet Miguel," the leader barked back angrily, his gun still pointed into the darkness. "I ain't got time for you to wimp out on me now."

Miguel turned back around, nervously reaching into his belt to pull out a butterfly knife, but his hand never made it to the knife. Suddenly from somewhere above him, a white cord spiraled down on top of him and yanked his screaming body high into the air. Tony instinctively began to fire wildly into the air while his compatriot backed against the wall panting. The sounds of Miguel's screams echoed for a moment before they were blotted out totally.

Tony turned to his remaining henchmen, who returned his glance with glazed stare filled with sheer terror. The man gulped and began to back away from the woman, who was now sitting completely up and desperately holding her torn blouse together as her attackers slowly began to retreat. Unfortunately, it was too late. Just as before, the strange white cord sprang out, this time from the darkness at the end of the alleyway. Latching onto the remaining henchman by his shoulder, forcibly pulling him out of the dim light into the unlit portions of the street, his screams echoing as he disappeared.

Tony stood silently with mouth agape for several seconds before he finally managed the will to mumble a prayer under his breath, punctuating it with a flurry of curses directed toward the unseen enemy. As he muttered, the woman quickly scrambled to her knees, her mind trying to process what was happening. Suddenly a large object came hurtling out of the darkness and landed on the pavement. Tony nudged forward to better see what the object was, causing the woman to dart toward the closest brick wall and take solace in the shadow of a dumpster. Slowly Tony picked up the object, only to drop it again in disgust as he discovered it to be a disembodied arm.

Quickly backing away from the appendage, Tony quickly looked up as the sounds of footsteps began to resound through the alley. Slowly a form became distinguishable through the darkness- a hulking black mass that moved fluidly through the black of the unlit street. The shape began to move into the light, giving more substance to its form. It was large and rippling with muscles, standing a full head and shoulders above the cowering Tony. Yet despite any resemblance to a man, the creature was as much inhuman as it was human. Though still shrouded in the shadows, its movements were slow and calculated- as though it was an animal stalking its prey.

Tony gulped and raised the gun, his finger trembling on the trigger. From somewhere in the darkness, the creature laughed. It was a low, rumbling laughter that terrified both Tony and the concealed woman to their core.

The creature suddenly moved with dizzying speed, bounding from the pavement onto the side of one of the walls nearest to Tony. The terrified man fired wildly at the creature, but it was in vain, for the creature had already leaped over him onto the opposing wall. Dropping down like a cat, the creature grabbed onto Tony and lifted him high into the air, letting out a loud cry as it suddenly pulled Tony in close. Tony screamed.

And, somewhere else in the darkness, the woman screamed in terror.

Detective Meidrik sipped his coffee and sighed. To say that leaving his wife and daughter to come out to Diamond Heights at 2:00 in the morning, but he was thankful for little graces, like the all-night doughnut shop on his way from his house. The truth of the matter was that he hadn't been asleep that night anyway, nor had he slept much in the past month. He was working a new case- a serial murder with a fetish for disemboweling local riffraff. As he had driven over, he had silently prayed against hope that this was not another murder, but his gut instinct told him to expect the worse.

As usual, his instincts were right.

The alleyway was swarming with uniformed officers, as well as on lookers and clamoring journalists- two breeds of human beings that Meidrik could not stand in the least. The former hovered like vultures who wanted to gawk at the carnage and offer color commentary when it was not asked for. The latter were parasites that would poke and pry at the scene and anyone silly enough to give them the time of day until they got enough to print a story or make the six o'clock news. How either of them managed to arrive at the scene before he had was a fact that evaded Meidrik. He sighed again and took another sip, pushing past the crowd into the alley and into the crime scene.

Unfortunately, calling it a crime scene did not do it justice; it had all of the makings of a scene for a deranged horror movie, from the mangled bodies lying on the ground underneath the lights set up by the officers who had arrived on the scene to the blood that covered the walls. It even had an attractive young woman, who for her part was sitting underneath one of the streetlights on the wall. All it was missing was the maniac with a chainsaw…

"What'd we get tonight, Phil?" he said to the forensic officer hovering over one of the bodies.

Phil looked up and shook his head. "It looks the same guy as Mission Street and Townsend, Jon. This time he got three for the price of one. And boy did he get 'em good."

Phil motioned toward the first body- a mohawked man covered in tattoos with a huge hole where his chest had been. "Miguel Rodriguez, age 19. He lived two blocks over with mom and grandma, who will be getting an 'It's my sad duty…' right about now. Had his lungs yanked right through his rib cage. We're still looking for them, but no luck so far…"

Meidrik whistled in disbelief and turned his attention to the next body. At one time it had been a squat little man with a scruffy beard, but now it was an armless mass of flesh with its abdomen ripped open and its intestines hanging out of the side.

"What's the story on chubby here? Don't tell me he tried to Atkin's and failed."

Phil snorted and replied coolly, "Try the 'Eviscerated Diet'." He turned slowly toward the final body, a well-built man whose head had been cracked open and scraped clean of any brain matter. "He's the only one that fits the M.O. of our guy. The beat-cops say he's Tony Delmoro, a.k.a. Big Tony, a local thug with a sheet as long as the Golden Gate Bridge."

Nodding toward the young woman still being crouched underneath the streetlight, Phil added, "Apparently he and his fellow gentlemen tried to enjoy themselves at the young lady's expense when they ran into our boy."

Meidrik shook his head again and turned away from Phil, walking quietly toward the young woman. She was mildly attractive, though Jon wouldn't allow himself to take his thoughts beyond that simple acknowledgement. It was obvious, however, that she had been scared by what she had seen. But that was only part of the reason Meidrik wanted to speak to her. She also had the singular pleasure of being the only person still alive who had seen the culprit. That alone made her valuable to him.

"Hey," he said with a forced smile, catching the girl's eye. "What's your name?"

She sniffed and wiped her eyes, still damp with tears from the screaming state of shock she had been found in. "Rachael. Rachael Murphy."

"My name's Detective Meidrik. I'm with homicide and I'm trying to find out what happened here. I know you already told the officers, but could you please tell me again?"

"I was walking home from work," she started, her eyes becoming glazed. "My car is in the shop, so I had to walk. I work at the bistro five blocks over. Those three guys started following me. They dragged me into this alley. They tried to rape me and…"

Meidrik folded his arms and leaned closer. "Then what?"

"They died. He... I mean, it… I mean, he killed them."

"Who killed them? What did he look like?"

Rachael began to shiver, tears coming down her face again. "He was big- really big. I couldn't see him real well, but he had white eyes and a big white symbol-thing on his chest and back. It looked like a spider or something."

Meidrik bit his lip to avoid cursing. He was hoping for something more, but what she was describing sounded more akin to a hallucination brought on by the events of the night, a monster made by her imagination to explain what she had seen. This was San Francisco, not New York; they didn't have monsters in San Francisco, just nutty people.

"Alright Rachael," he said finally after an uneasy silence, "I'm going to have one of the officers take you home. Give him your phone number and I'll call to check up on you in a day or two. Take the next week off- you need some rest after tonight."

Turning back, he moved quickly toward Phil, who stood with his arms crossed between the bodies. Meidrik shook his head wearily and said crossly, "She's got nothing right now. That girl is so scared, she can't see straight. According to her, our culprit is some kind of spider-monster with white eyes."

Phil cleared his throat and replied, "I don't know, Jon. I've been looking at these victims and at the other ones and I'm beginning to wonder if it's a man we're after or not. I mean, it looks as though these guys weren't sliced open with a knife or anything like that."

"What'd you mean? If he didn't use a knife, what'd he use?"

"It looks more like someone or something used claws to do it."

"Claws?"

"That's not all. I can't be sure yet, but after examining the head wound on Delmoro, it looks like whatever did this used its teeth to get into his skull."

Jon quickly covered his mouth and stood silently for several moments before saying slowly, "What are you tellin' me Phil? Are you saying that we've got some kind of animal running around feeding on punks? Do I need to put out an A.P.B. for Bigfoot or something?"

"I don't know, Jon," Phil said defensively. "I can't be sure without running some more tests. But I can tell you this: even if this thing is a man, it sure as hell ain't human."

Meidrik growled and turned away. Five dead men, all ripped apart, and the only lead he had was that the person or thing doing it was a big thing with claws and teeth. Inside, he couldn't help but wonder if this thing would be content to keep killing the hoodlums of the city or if it would get bored with that and start turning on other people.

As he walked back to his car, Phil's words kept ringing in his ears.

_Even if this thing is a man, it sure as hell ain't human._


	2. Chapter II

Chapter II

A police siren wailed somewhere up the street and Eddie shuddered. _I know it's not for me_, he told himself as he sighed with relief, _but that doesn't mean that I still don't get nervous every time that I hear one of those things_. Looking cautiously on either side of him, he briskly jogged across the street. His glances were for safety- both from oncoming traffic and from any unwanted attention. Even though he had shaved his head and changed his wardrobe completely, not to mention the fact that no one here in San Francisco knew his secret, he had long ago decided that it was better to err on the side of caution than to take any risks.

Still, part of him had already relaxed since arriving in the Bay City, whether it was because he was no longer a wanted man or because he had simply returned to his hometown. His last few days in New York had successfully broken any ties he had to that city and he was grateful for that. Whether it was the death of his ex-wife or his final confrontation, and unbelievable alliance, with **him**, Eddie had been able to leave New York without fear of anyone following him. The only things that had followed him to San Francisco were the alien symbiote that had bonded with him and his past.

_The Symbiote_. Eddie looked down at his feet and inwardly groaned as his thoughts went back to the mysterious alien entity that he had come to bond with three years ago in that church. _I wasn't looking for it_, he mused, _and the truth of the matter is that it wasn't looking for me_._ But we found each other- both looking for a safe place and both seeking vengeance_. He looked up and folded his arm as he skipped onto the sidewalk. _But that was a long time ago and vengeance is no longer an issue- not now_._ All that remains now is to decide what to do next_.

Perhaps that was what brought Eddie back to San Francisco. While it was true that he had come to try to restart his life and contribute something meaningful to society, but he knew deep down that this place was as much a weigh station as it was a refuge - a place to change direction and seek advice. It was that latter that brought him to the church that stood before him. The Church of St. James had been his parish home until ten years ago, when he had left to go to New York and work for the Jameson as a reporter. He had come back a few years later when his father died, but he had left almost immediately afterward. It was a few months after that that he had met his "other". The irony of all of it was not lost on him.

He sighed again and stepped through the door and seemingly twenty years into the past. Not much had changed in the church since he was a little boy running up and down the pews when his father wasn't looking, from the ornate stained-glass window depicting the martyrdom of St. Stephen to the chipped tiles that covered the floor. Eddie gazed silently at the window for several moments. The story of Stephen had always fascinated him throughout his life- man willing to sacrifice everything for what he believed. Somehow he had always wanted to be like that. Again, the irony was obvious.

Exhaling slowly, Eddie made his way toward the confessional. Part of him hoped that there would be no one in there or that it would be a new priest. But as he slid into the booth, he knew in the pit of his soul that the likelihood of finding an empty confessional was nil. _That would be too easy_, he thought with a half-smile. _And nothing with me can be easy_.

"Forgive me father, for I have sinned."

"Eddie? Eddie Brock?" the voice on the other side of the screen said in shock.

Inwardly, Eddie smiled, but he consciously refused to look through the screen to confirm what he already knew. Though the voice had changed from the years, it was the same man who had been his exemplar for the majority of his life.

He swallowed hard and said coolly, "Hello, Father Bryan."

The priest chuckled. "What are you doing back in town? When did you arrive?"

"About a week ago."

"But what's with the surprise visit? Last I heard you were still in New York. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have you back; it's just unexpected."

"Yeah," Eddie said as he folded his arms, still refusing to make eye contact, "I probably should have written someone telling them I was coming. I guess I sort of made my decision so quickly that I didn't give myself the time to do it. I just needed to get out of New York and start over somewhere familiar."

Father Bryan nodded and said gently, "We all need to start over at least once in our lives. How is Ann doing these days?"

Eddie clenched his teeth. Ann was a sore subject among so many. First there was the divorce when she found out his secret and then-

"She's, ummm, dead."

Father Bryan sat up with a start. "What? What happened?"

Eddie hung his head. "She found out some things about me and we divorced. Then she decided she couldn't live anymore and…" There was a pause before he mumbled, "… and she threw herself off of a tenth floor balcony."

"I'm so sorry Eddie," the priest replied empathetically. "I had no idea. But Eddie, I have to ask. What did she find out that was so bad? What is there about you that could drive a sweet woman like Ann to kill herself?"

Eddie sat back against the cold hardwood confessional and thought to himself, _How can I tell him everything? How can I tell him all of the terrible things that I've done… that we've done_-_ that Venom has done_. Eddie covered his eyes with his hand and tried to hold back his emotions. Venom, the name of the creature he and the Symbiote formed. _Part of me hates that name_, he mused, _despite the fact that I was in fact the one that chose it_._ Yet I know that he is a part of me- a part of us, I guess_._ Venom is a part of both the Symbiote and me_._ He's the totality of all of our combined rage and hatred_. _I can't hate that name anymore than I can hate my own name_.

Eddied sighed and said slowly, "Father, I've done terrible things. Horrible things."

Father Bryan's voice grew suddenly very dark. "What have you done, Eddie? I need you to tell me everything. I can't help you if you aren't honest with me- and I mean completely honest. Tell me what happened."

Slowly Eddie turned to face the confessional window, his eyes suddenly distant as he began to tell his story.

Dr. Annie Ozu sat quietly at her computer, the glasses hanging on the end her nose as she input the new test data into the simulator. While the experiment was more than capable of handling the new test simulations, she knew that if anything went wrong and the experiment was lost during one of her tests, she would be finished. _Which_, she couldn't help but think, _would probably be a good idea at this point_.

Leaning back from the desk, she pushed her glasses up on her face and pulled her long black hair back behind her shoulders. She had come to work for Sypher Corporation, a leading military research and development company, on their current project not only for the thrill of being on the cutting edge of genetic engineering, but also for the opportunity to get out of her former job. Prior to taking the job at Sypher, all of the expertise she had was used to make larger vegetables for an agriculture research firm. The pay had been good, but it was boring work and not much in the way of earning her any big promotions.

Then she had gotten the call to come out to San Francisco by Dr. Anton Lavren, the project leader of Project: Achilles. Her doctoral work on the integration of nanotechnology and pre-fabricated genetic material had caught his attention and he offered her a job. At the time, she had jumped at the chance.

But that was before things got worrisome.

"How is it going?" a smooth voice said from somewhere behind her.

Annie turned around and sighed. Dr. Lavren was her boss and nearly thirty years her senior, but over the past year that hadn't seemed to get in the way of any of his less-than professional desires. At first she had ignored it as merely a nuisance, but his behavior had gone beyond bothersome to entirely incommodious.

"Hello, Anton," she said as she turned back to the computer screen. "The computer simulation shows that the experime-"

"Adam."

Annie blinked and said confusedly, "I'm sorry?"

Dr. Lavren gave his signature oily smile and said coolly, "Since he is the first of his kind, I though the name 'Adam' seemed apposite."

Annie rolled her eyes. "Very clever, Anton. At any rate, the computer simulations show that Adam should be more than capable of handling the increased stimuli and environmental conditions."

Anton folded his arms and asked, "And what conditions are those?"

"According to this data, Adam can survive temperatures as high as 600° and as low as 350° below zero with minimal reaction to sudden acclimatization changes."

Anton smiled again and said in his most flirtatious voice, "Excellent work as always Annie. We'll implement the new conditions this afternoon."

He paused for a moment before adding, "Why don't we go celebrate over lunch? I know a great little bistro on-"

Annie cut him off quickly before he got any further. "Thanks, but no thanks, Anton. As I've told you before, I have no interest in you or any one else at the moment. I have more important things to worry about."

She swiveled the chair around to face her employer, her arms folded as she continued, "I'm worried about the subject's intelligence level."

"I'm not sure I follow," Lavren said with a perplexed look on his face.

"I think that Adam could be becoming too smart for our safety. With everything he's been given, he poses a danger if he were to ever decide to break out."

Lavren chuckled. "Look, Annie, the U.S. government didn't give us a grant for $250 million to make a dummy. Adam has been given full human cognition and intelligence for a reason- to make him more efficient. But if it'll make you feel better, I'll see if the boys in electronics can work up some kind of control harness. How'd you like that?"

Annie scowled at his patronization and said icily as she got up to leave, "When that thing turns on us and we all die, its going to be on your shoulders."

As she stormed out, Anton called behind her, "Does that mean we still can't have lunch?"

Several rooms away, in a large adamantium chamber specialy constructed to hold him, the being known as Adam smiled. His keen hearing had heard everything, which only added to the deliciousness of his plans. Leaning back against the cold metal walls, he thought to himself, _I like this Dr_._ Ozu_._ When I kill everyone in this city, maybe I'll keep her around_. _Maybe_.

Father Bryan sat in silent shock at what Eddie had told him, his eyes glassed over as he mumbled a silent prayer. On the other side of the confessional, Eddie Brock lowered his head and folded his arms, awaiting the condemnation of the man he had looked up to for so long. The silence lingered on.

"Tell me one thing, Eddie," the priest said finally. "This creature you have become, this 'Venom', do you enjoy being him?"

Eddie breathed deeply and replied quietly, "I don't know, Father. I hate killing people. I hate the destruction and the death. But part of me believes that if I can just learn to control the Symbiote, to control the urges, then I can use it to do good things."

Father Bryan swallowed hard and said gently, "Eddie, I can give you forgiveness for the sins you have committed, but I can't and I won't let you use this place as a place of validation of this creature's actions- or of your actions. You have to make this right and you have to do what is necessary to stop the killings. That may mean answering for your crimes, but you have to make that decision."

Eddie turned to face the man on the other side of the screen and for the first time in a long time, smiled an ingenuous smile. The damnation he had expected was not there, only the frank truth from a man who was as much a father to him as his own parent had been.

"I know, Father," he said at last. "I want to try to make amends and help this city. I just don't know…"

Bryan held his hand up and said quietly, "I have a parishioner who works in a lab at Sypher Corporation. He may be able to try to get you some help from someone there. I'll call him tonight… but on one condition: you have to promise me not to go out there. I want to hear you promise me, Eddie."

"I, I mean, **we **promise."

Eddie stood up and pushed through the confessional curtain, turning quickly to see Father Bryan emerge from his side. Though his once bright red hair had turned silver and his body had grown fragile, Brock could still recognize his old friend.

"Eddie," he said slowly, "there's just one more thing I want to ask you. You can feel free to say no if you choose to. But I want to know if… well, if I can see him. Venom, I mean."

Eddie gulped hard and said quickly, "Father, I'm not sure you want that. Eddie Brock may not be able to control **us** once the Symbiote takes control. I don't want to risk hurting you."

"I'm willing to take that chance, Eddie. But if I'm going to help you, I need to see you as you are- both of you."

Eddie nodded and took a step back, his mind suddenly regressing into the dark place where the Symbiote dwelled. Slowly the alien began to take hold, the black mass covering his body to form the suit that had come to mean terror and madness in New York. Eddie closed his eyes as his face began to transform, the blank white eyes and jagged teeth covering his once-human exterior. Eddie Brock had disappeared completely. Now only Venom stood in the presence of God.

"You wanted to see us, little man," Venom hissed as he stepped forward, his long tongue hanging out. "'Ask and ye shall receive.'"

Father Bryan's face froze in horror as Venom moved toward him, his hulking form towering over the priest. Mumbling a quick prayer, the priest closes his eyes and steeled himself as the creature moved closer.

"You're not running," Venom said mockingly. "That's good. We really don't want to have to run to catch our food today."

Father Bryan replied sternly, "I'm not afraid of you, Venom. I know what you are and I'm not afraid of it. You are a force of nature, a primal animal- neither good nor evil. You merely survive by whatever means necessary. But like any animal, you can be controlled. I'm going to help Eddie control you. We're going to find a way to make you do what Eddie wants you to do."

Venom roared and bellowed, "Eddie is weak without us. He needs us."

"You're wrong. Eddie is strong without you, but with you he can be stronger. Besides, I'm willing to bet that you know as well as I do what this conflict is doing to Eddie. The human soul can only take so much torture. Eventually, he'll either destroy you or destroy himself. In either event, you lose."

Venom growled and sank back into the shadows, his fangs gleaming as he disappeared for a moment. There was a faint sound, something akin to water going down a drain, and a moment later, Eddie reappeared. He walked slowly toward Father Bryan, his eyes downcast.

"The Symbiote listened to what you had to say," he said softly, "and while it isn't happy, it knows that you are right. I… I think it knows that there has to be some kind of truce. But I don't know how to do it."

Father Bryan embraced Eddie and said peacefully, "We'll figure it out, Eddie. We'll figure it out."


End file.
